1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an advertisement distribution device and an advertisement distribution method.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the Internet is rapidly becoming widespread in recent years, it has become popular to distribute advertisements through the Internet. For example, an advertisement is distributed by displaying advertising content (such as an icon of an image) of a company or a product at a predetermined position on a Web page and transitioning to a Web page of an advertiser when the advertising content is clicked.
Such advertising content is often distributed by an advertisement distribution device which holds advertising content submitted from each advertiser. For example, the advertisement distribution device is known to distribute an advertisement by: a method of selectively distributing advertising content with a high bid price specified by an advertiser; a method of selectively distributing advertising content that matches a keyword included in a Web page browsed by a user; and a method of selectively distributing advertising content that matches a user attribute (such as a psychographic attribute or a demographic attribute).
An advertisement distributor who is an administrator or the like of the advertisement distribution device charges an advertiser for an advertising fee based on a bid price, when the advertising content distributed in the aforementioned manner is displayed on a Web page or clicked on the Web page. Then, the advertisement distributor often pays a part or all of the advertising fee obtained from the advertiser to a Web page provider who provides the Web page as an advertisement listing fee.
However, it has been difficult in the aforementioned related art to increase both the profit of the Web page provider and the value of the Web page. An example will be described below regarding this point.
In the method of selectively distributing the advertising content with the high bid price as described above in the related art, for example, the profit of the Web page provider can be increased because a high advertising fee is obtained from the advertiser so that the advertisement listing fee paid to the Web page provider is increased. However, this method cannot always increase the value of the Web page because it is not always the case that the advertising content matching the Web page or the advertising content of a field in which a user is interested is placed on the Web page.
On the other hand, in the method of selectively distributing the advertising content matching the keyword included in the Web page or the advertising content matching the user attribute, for example, the value of the Web page can be increased because the advertising content matching the Web page or the user is placed so that there is a high possibility a Web page having a good impression on the user can be provided to the user. However, this method cannot always increase the profit of the Web page provider because the advertising content with a low bid price is possibly placed.
It has therefore been difficult to increase both the profit of the Web page provider and the value of the Web page in the technology of distributing the advertising content.